Chris Kennedy’s campaign for governor of Illinois announced today it has received over $1 million from over 3,000 individual contributors since launching his candidacy six weeks ago.

Kennedy has raised more individual contributions in the first six weeks of his campaign than Governor Rauner did between announcing his campaign and the Republican primary in 2014.

“Thousands of Illinois families have contributed to this effort because they know fixing our state’s challenges will take more than a big wallet,” Kennedy said. “Illinois has never been in worse shape than it is under Governor Rauner. We need a fundamental change in state government. Thousands of Illinois families have responded to our message because they want to restore the promise of the American Dream. I am ready to bring my unique set of experiences to build a stronger economy that works for every Illinois family, no matter where they live in our state.”

That confirms the rumor I’d heard last week but so far he’s only disclosed about $400K of the million. If he doesn’t file any other A-1’s this week that would mean he’s raised about $600K in small donations which would be impressive too.

“We’re a year away from Election Day, we’re not even through the spring. June 30, Kennedy gets to $5-7 million, he’ll be where he needs to be. Take a breath.”

I disagree. For connected candidates, your first quarter is almost always your best because you get to hit up your rich best friends and biggest donors. He needed to show MORE in the first quarter - not less.

===I disagree. For connected candidates, your first quarter is almost always your best because you get to hit up your rich best friends and biggest donors. He needed to show MORE in the first quarter - not less===

1) The caps are off. If you think these first quarter numbers are going to be the “best” numbers, you must’ve missed 2014 and Rauner dropping a million at a time, at any time. Traditional metrics don’t measure things now. Now it’s benchmarks in hopes of not getting swamped.

2) With those caps off, momentum and the ebb and flow of Rauner will dictate monies for the likes of a Kennedy and a Pritzker. There will be answering of things and pooling monies or drawing from PACs even unlike 2014. It will be up to Kennedy to get the benchmark of $5-7 million by June 30, before State Fair, before petitions, and the ebb and flow will help.

3) Mystery. Kennedy is now facing a billionaire. Why put out a number ($8 million, for example) that Pritzker can then match with a wire transfer. Remember Rauner. “We raised $500K… ” Rauner then world have an A-1 for a million. We’re a year out. Mystery is going to be an asset for everyone but Pritzker whose only mystery is how serious and quick wil that “serious” be seen.

A few observations:
- At the beginning of the year the biggest concern about Kennedy was whether he was actually going to run and being committed to the race. His $250,000 contribution answered that. And the other $800,000 he raised in two months shows he’s willing to put in the work.
- Pawar and Biss raised significant money online, but they also had lists that they’ve been building as elected officials over many years. Kennedy was starting from scratch. 3,000 contributions. That’s impressive.
- And I disagree with OW about 2nd quarter goals. Voters won’t start paying attention until, at best, late this year. I don’t disagree with your goals, but I think the timeline is more forgiving. With the Kennedy brand already established, it costs him less to communicate.

It’s not about the voters, it’s about creeping up with the monies needed and not having what happened to Dillard, Brady, and Rutherford in fundraising “goals”, only to be swamped when touting monies that Rauner matches with a phone call.

It’s measures to be climbing, but not seen as a peaking to be swamped too soon.

Juice - appreciate the updated info (truly). I’m seeing lots of quotes though where he says he’ll spend money so I’m guessing they were just protesting the part about the amount pledged. It’s hard for me to imagine him not spending enormous amounts of money on this race (or Pritzger doing the same) and I’m still going on that assumption, but I guess there’s always reason to be suspicious!

That’s quite a bit different than what we were all speculating yesterday! Which says more about us than anything…

I still think Kennedy needs to have his best months of the primary this year. Pritzker will beat him on the money, and his frequent public mistakes will tear him down if he doesn’t get a handle on them.